Griffon

…Salle, built his ship the Griffon in 1679. A French trading post under Chabert Joncaire was established in 1758 but was abandoned the following year after it was burned by the British. Seneca Indians under British protection settled the area in 1780. The town was laid out in 1803–04 by…

…year, he built the “Griffon,” the first commercial sailing vessel on Lake Erie, which he hoped would pay for an expedition into the interior as far as the Mississippi. From the Seneca Indians above the Niagara Falls he learned how to make long journeys overland, on foot in any…